Friday, December 21, 2012

Zero Dark Scarborough

Joe Scarborough used the fictional film Zero Dark Thirty as proof that torture worked to get valuable intelligence. The filmmakers themselves have never made that claim. CIA Acting Director Michael Morell throws cold water on Scarborough's torture fantasy.

Second, the film creates the strong impression that the enhanced interrogation techniques that were part of our former detention and interrogation program were the key to finding Bin Ladin. That impression is false. As we have said before, the truth is that multiple streams of intelligence led CIA analysts to conclude that Bin Ladin was hiding in Abbottabad. Some came from detainees subjected to enhanced techniques, but there were many other sources as well. And, importantly, whether enhanced interrogation techniques were the only timely and effective way to obtain information from those detainees, as the film suggests, is a matter of debate that cannot and never will be definitively resolved.

The chance of Scarborough mentioning Morell's memo on Morning Joe are zero.